S01.E01: Pilot

[Matt K]

Honestly, if they have flashbacks every episode Lost style I think I'm out.  The flashbacks (at least initially) worked on Lost because it was an ensemble show.  For the most part there was no main character.  As such, having the characters as initially blank slates with their past filled in by flashback works.  It puts the audience on the same footing as the other characters.  You don't know who you can trust, and especially that everyone is who they say they are.  Then we get flashbacks to help explain to the audience who these people are so that we can actually know who to root for.  That said, the flashback format grew thin by season 3 (when I dropped the show) and I think it only worked as long as it did because of the huge cast (as an aside, it's hard to argue that Lost didn't have a great first season and a good second season, even if the seams started to show in season 2). 

 

This show on the other hand seems to have only one main character, Michaela and a few supporting characters that all revolve around her.  As such, the 2D (at best) approach doesn't work since everyone already knows everyone else (at least within the family we're seemingly going to follow for the next how ever many episodes this lasts).  So instead while the characters know each other's pasts, the audience is left in the dark which makes everyone seem hollow.

 

I agree with Green that the show should have ended with them landing and "it's been five years".  In addition to expanding on the characters pre-timeskip, I think it would have been interesting to cut away from the plane once the turbulence happened and show the other side (i.e. the people who weren't on the flight). 

 

I'm fine with some characters embracing religion after everything that's happened, but I really hope the show doesn't go any further.  The best show I watched that had a semi-religious bent was Early Edition where it seems that god may have given him tomorrow's newspaper today but it didn't really matter for the show what was going on (except for bad things happening when the paper was used for personal gain).  Like if this show doesn't really care about what happened and what the deal with their powers are and is instead interested in how these characters cope, then fine.  But if the show starts going that this was all god's plan and that kind of crap then I'm out.  Also I want to add that it feels like a weird choice for the characters to have no real choice but to obey the voice, especially if the show goes with the god bent. 

[eel2178]

19 minutes ago, AriAu said:

... it would have been fun to see them adjust to all the things that changed in 5 1/2 years-think of the tech ("wait, the phone does what?")and the sports ("wait, the Cubs won the world series" )and the politics ("wait, who is President?") and it could have been a lot lighter.

I also would have liked to see the families' reactions five years ago to hearing the news that the plane had vanished.

[AriAu]

Quote

I also would have liked to see the families' reactions five years ago to hearing the news that the plane had vanished.

I think I'm ok not seeing their grief, but it will be interesting to see if we get some flashbacks to the time in between, like when the fiancé/cop got with the best friend (too soon to know the names) or the wife met her new squeeze or the doctors got the clinical approval etc.... I know it is a little This is Us..ish, but might fill in the missing pieces.

[Anela]

2 hours ago, blixie said:

This is show is hoky and dumb AF, but it's not like that isn't my catnip. My favorite thing is Cynical and bitchy Prince Charming shooting his narcissistic sister withering looks while telling her how clueless she is. Why is it JUST us, why are we SPECIAL?!

Also why can't the voice be that guy from the Dr. Pepper commercials, the faux Prince?

I thought he was a douche. Especially when he told her that she was losing her mind, when he'd also heard a voice. She talked to him, because she had nobody else to talk to, her therapist brother, and that was his response. No wonder she isn't all healthy and happy.

[ohjoy]

2 hours ago, blixie said:

Also why can't the voice be that guy from the Dr. Pepper commercials, the faux Prince?

 

I would absolutely LOVE it if Lil' Sweet was the voice in everyone's head -- but that's a level of comedy way too high for this type of show. 

[shapeshifter]

5 hours ago, Jadzia said:

I enjoyed the pilot overall but I thought they missed an opportunity for a character to ask who was President in 2018 and then not believe the answer, a la Back to the Future.

Seriously. I guess the target audience is *ahem* well . . . 

Spoiler

I already have one point against me for being too political, so fill in your own blank here . . .

[ichbin]

2 hours ago, Matt K said:

The flashbacks (at least initially) worked on Lost because it was an ensemble show.

Lost was somewhat unique as far as far as syfy series on TV go.  There are few, if any, which have been able to develop and maintain enough of an audience to make them worth keeping on the air beyond one or two seasons.  I'm afraid this show is going to disappear fast because although the initial premise is interesting, the characters are not, and if the pilot is any gauge the writing seems weak.  

 

2 hours ago, AriAu said:

I know it is a little This is Us..ish, but might fill in the missing pieces.

I'd be shocked if that isn't the plan.  Like someone was thinking, let's combine two hits, Lost and This is Life, what could go wrong?  I have a feeling it's this.

[BooBear]

On 9/24/2018 at 11:21 PM, Tachi Rocinante said:

Detective Ex Boyfriend is a horrible actor.

Oh yes it was actually painful. 

I enjoyed it. The first 15 minutes was rushed and it played like a presentation for the NBC brass but I think it has potential.  

I was most taken aback by the understated way this show handled everything. As has been said before this should have been a much bigger deal in the press and in their lives.  Each of the returnees should have been taking things much more seriously. Someone made the analogy to the Leftovers and it kind of seems apt. I can see people becoming religious thinking god saved them or something. 

Prince Charming was a downer bore the entire episode (even before the time jump). 

If this show gets a good set of writers I think it could work.

[HazelEyes4325]

3 hours ago, AriAu said:

And I am shocked that the daughter did not tell dad that mom has a new love interest....had to be careful, maybe it is not a guy.

 

The daughter might not know...it was established that she is, um, "delicate" and struggled with the supposed deaths of her father and twin.  I can conceivably see the Mom keeping a romantic relationship from the daughter (although that would be a stupid thing to do...)

[BooBear]

3 hours ago, eel2178 said:

I also would have liked to see the families' reactions five years ago to hearing the news that the plane had vanished.

I would have liked to see their reactions to learning the plane had landed with their loved ones aboard.. no I would like to have seen that news break on CNN.

[CCTC]

8 minutes ago, HazelEyes4325 said:

The daughter might not know...

The daughter knows.  She saw her Mom looking at her phone after receiving the text during game night and quietly asked her what she was going to do while her Dad and brother were in the next room.

[HazelEyes4325]

3 minutes ago, CCTC said:

The daughter knows.  She saw her Mom looking at her phone after receiving the text during game night and quietly asked her what she was going to do while her Dad and brother were in the next room.

Aaah, I missed that.  Thanks!

[CCTC]

27 minutes ago, HazelEyes4325 said:

Aaah, I missed that.  Thanks!

It was fairly subtle, esp. compared to other moments in the episode.  The daughter seemed pretty sympathetic and supportive of her mother instead of the cliched "you cheating on dad" which gives me some hope that post-pilot there might be some nuance and shades of gray.  I thought the episode was a little clunky and heavy-handed, but they did try to introduce a lot.  This scene showed that there is some potential for some more complicated emotional fall-out from the situation that they can better flesh out in later episodes.  

Unpopular opinion, but I think Dallas is a decent actor.

[Guest]

I'm not quite sure what this show thinks it is yet but it was mediocre at just about every possible thing it could be.

It skipped over everything that might have been interesting or could have made a connection between the characters and the audience.

Everyone has covered what they could have done better.  It was a lot so I won't repeat it.

I found it a peculiar decision that they went as far as having the sister find abducted girls by the end of the episode.  Why didn't they string along uncanny foresight (like the kid in front of the bus) for a while?

There was no need to gather everyone via migraine to watch the plane blow up.  There was no reason for the plane to blow up.  Did they really think they needed an excuse for the military/government to take a closer look at them?

The omniscient voice over at the end was also a really bad idea.  Whatever did this doesn't want to be investigated.  We will come to know these people like we know ourselves.  They were trying very hard to get the episode to a particular point.  Too hard and too fast and in the bluntest terms possible. 

Edited September 27, 2018 by ParadoxLost

[Camera One]

While the first episode was engaging enough, the bigger problem is I don't think I'm too intrigued by anything.  I don't think I care why the plane went missing for 5 years, or what the voices are, or what it wants with the passengers, or why they were chosen, etc.  I also don't think I care about the cop's car accident, which will clearly be fodder for flashbacks.  Compare that to the pilot episode of "Lost", where I was intrigued by the island as well as the backstories of the passengers, and moving forward, I was interested in how they would interact as they tried to survive and waited for rescue.  For this show, I can't identify anything I'm looking forward to next week and beyond.

Edited September 27, 2018 by Camera One

[Galadriel]

I will probably give it a go for a few more episodes out of curiousity.

 

I liked the premise but thought the production was cheesy and the acting not very good. There is no appeal for me in the two (so far) main characters, the brother and sister. So I guess I feel like the casting was poorly done too.

 

Hopefully they will branch out to include some more interesting characters.

 

I feel strangely compelled to give it a *bit* of a chance.

[CheshireCat]

On ‎25‎.‎09‎.‎2018 at 1:15 AM, Lakebum said:

 In real life, those people have returned only to spend the rest of their lives as lab rats... with about as much freedom.

On ‎25‎.‎09‎.‎2018 at 6:51 PM, Netfoot said:

Granted.  The phrase used in the show was "missing, presumed dead."  

In either case, if they languished in an internment camp for the remainder of their lives, nobody would have come looking for them.

I don't think that, in our day and age, there is any way that this wouldn't end up on social media. The air traffic controller would probably have told his colleagues then informed his superiors and someone at the airline would have been informed who probably would have told someone else who would have told someone else who posted it on twitter or fed it to the media. The whole airport probably knew before they touched down. So, if they had kept them in some lab the families, activist groups and media would probably have raised hell. Plus, the whole show would be about them trying to get out. Which could be interesting as well but it's obviously not what they're going for.

I'm surprised that no one required the plane to identify itself before they were about to land. Or did the plane not show up on any radar? If it didn't, would they have been allowed to land though? Wouldn't they have been given a government escort one way or another?

 

On ‎25‎.‎09‎.‎2018 at 10:09 AM, stealinghome said:

Forget sports, can you imagine disappearing under Obama and reappearing under Trump??

I had the same thought, that I would like to see some reaction to that. Then I thought that maybe they're putting it into a different universe?

 

On ‎25‎.‎09‎.‎2018 at 10:55 AM, Empress1 said:

I'm with those of you who wonder why Ben's wife doesn't just tell her husband that she moved on.

I think it's far more complicated than simply having moved on. They had a happy marriage even after 15 years, at least, that's what the sister said. Granted, the marriages I'm thinking of have been 30+ years but I don't think that any of them would just move on. Their current spouse would always be their first love and while I wouldn't rule it out that they'd find happiness again, the second partner would probably always be the second partner. It would be a different kind of love and relationship.

 

Quote

She didn't do anything wrong. Five and a half years is a long time and she thought he was dead;

Is it? If this is the guy you have been married to for 15 years and thought you were going to spend the rest of your life with 5 years seems rather short. In my mind, and with the facts that we know now, her relationship is kind of new. Otherwise, I'd have a hard time believing that something wasn't already going on with this marriage.

I actually would have liked to see her still single. Not grieving and still insisting that he is not dead. Just single, for a change. I don't think they need a new love interest for the spouse who didn't disappear to show that things have changed. I think they could explore it in many different ways, after all, she was a single mom for five years, she grieved with her daughter, she grieved herself, he wasn't there for birthdays and Christmas etc. She has so many experiences that he doesn't have and I think that's plenty of stuff to go through.

 

Quote

 I'm guessing that she has feelings for her husband, which is complicating her new relationship, but she should just say that.

I don't see why she wouldn't still have feelings. I don't think you stop loving someone just because they're dead but you're loving them in a different way, I guess. But she has to figure out how much and what exactly she feels for who now.

While I didn't think that she was with a woman, I felt that the new love interest is someone we met. I don't know why though, they just were so secretive about it.

 

On ‎25‎.‎09‎.‎2018 at 8:40 PM, biakbiak said:

I don’t understand why they took it out of the hanger

So everyone could watch it explode ;-)

Edited September 27, 2018 by CheshireCat

[Chit Chat]

3 hours ago, CheshireCat said:

I'm surprised that no one required the plane to identify itself before they were about to land. Or did the plane not show up on any radar?

The air traffic controller and the pilot were talking as he was coming in to land.  The pilot was asked several times to identify himself and the aircraft. 

[Trillium]

I’ll keep watching but it l’m not all in. I agree they definitely glossed over the time jump too fast. Even if the government isn’t going to probe them, some counseling would have been a good idea. Not “Oh, so yeah...it’s 5 1/2 years later, everything you had is gone, you’re loved ones have moved on, but hey! You’re alive, that’s cool. Good luck to you” 

 

I do think the wife is seeing a woman. Because it would be a “twist” but even that is predictable. Or she’s pregnant. Either way it’s eh. I was in for the mystery and mindfuck it would be to time travel. Relationship melodrama and super powers...not so much. We’ll see where it goes. 

Edited September 27, 2018 by Trillium

[deemac]

I'm surprised no one mentioned the other meaning of manifest.....ie....

God manifested his will through these boring characters.

(I just watched it on dvr last night)

[SunnyBeBe]

I had such high hopes.  This is a great premise, imo.  I'm going to hang in there a little longer.  I just kept thinking........so...this is it?  Man, okay. 

And when the lady started hearing the voices, "Set them free," I just felt like I was watching some old lifetime movie, (no offense to those fans).

 I won't even go in to why they were congratulating the lady, since, she entered a locked building on defendant's property without a search warrant nor probable cause (no exigent circumstances unless she claims otherwise and I don't think hearing voices qualifies) and so, the girl victims will actually be inadmissible in court as evidence and what do that have against him without them?  She was technically reinstated as an officer, right?  But, I'll just move on from that.  Maybe, I should adjust my expectations. 

[Amy Beth]

I get The Stand vibes from this so far, but I never watched Lost or The 4400 or any of the other points of reference mentioned.

i will actually defend the writers’ use of cliched romantic developments. Sadly, human beings are very predictable. The likelihood a grieving almost fiancé would turn to the dead woman’s close friend is quite high.

[AriAu]

Quote

 

I'm not quite sure what this show thinks it is yet but it was mediocre at just about every possible thing it could be.

It skipped over everything that might have been interesting or could have made a connection between the characters and the audience.

Everyone has covered what they could have done better.  It was a lot so I won't repeat it.

I found it a peculiar decision that they went as far as having the sister find abducted girls by the end of the episode.  Why didn't they string along uncanny foresight (like the kid in front of the bus) for a while?

 

These are all great points, but this was the Pilot. I don't know very much about the TV business, but I assume that they had to give the networks something to latch onto so that it would get picked up. Therefore,they needed to wrap some things up to make sure the networks had a feel for how it would go. Yes, I was the one that wanted it to be 2 hours to allow for more exposition, but maybe that wasn't possible or what the networks wanted.

[plurie]

4 hours ago, ChitChat said:

The air traffic controller and the pilot were talking as he was coming in to land.  The pilot was asked several times to identify himself and the aircraft. 

Not only that, but the air traffic controllers diverted them from JFK to another, less busy airport so that Homeland Security could quarantine the plane and question all those aboard.

[Skycatcher]

13 hours ago, Galadriel said:

I feel strangely compelled to give it a *bit* of a chance.

 Is that you or are you hearing voices?

[TWP]

On 9/26/2018 at 4:51 PM, ichbin said:

 

I'd be shocked if that isn't the plan.  Like someone was thinking, let's combine two hits, Lost and This is Life, what could go wrong?  I have a feeling it's this.

And they would name it, "This is Lost," which totally fits ;-). 

 

I thought the episode was semi-interesting, but could see it morphing into Touched by an Angel. 

[CheshireCat]

15 hours ago, ChitChat said:

The air traffic controller and the pilot were talking as he was coming in to land.  The pilot was asked several times to identify himself and the aircraft. 

I meant before that. As far as I know, planes appear on the radar of nearby airport towers and they have an ID attached to them. So, I'm wondering if this plane didn't appear on any radar before they wanted to land (if it did not, wouldn't the Tower have considered it a hoax?) and if it did appear on a radar, wouldn't they have appeared without an ID or their old ID? And if either happened, why did no one ask them to identify themselves, especially since it was a plane approaching New York City.

[Haleth]

5 hours ago, CheshireCat said:

I meant before that. As far as I know, planes appear on the radar of nearby airport towers and they have an ID attached to them. So, I'm wondering if this plane didn't appear on any radar before they wanted to land (if it did not, wouldn't the Tower have considered it a hoax?) and if it did appear on a radar, wouldn't they have appeared without an ID or their old ID? And if either happened, why did no one ask them to identify themselves, especially since it was a plane approaching New York City.

Yeah, it doesn't say much for security if the controllers didn't notice a giant phantom plane suddenly pop up on their screens before the pilot asked for landing instructions.

[Mulva]

Quote

I also really thought we'd get a lot of "What?  That happened in the last 5 years?" moments, but there was next to none of that.

I kept waiting for the "Who's the president?  . . . . No really, who is it? . . . ARE YOU KIDDING ME!  How the hell did THAT happen?"

True story:  The guy who was held prisoner by the Taliban for five years thought his rescuers were pulling his leg when they told him about Trump.

Edited September 28, 2018 by Mulva

[basiltherat]

Makes you wonder:

Wouldn't the returnees need to have psyche evaluations and de-briefing? 

Did the scientist REALLY send the info to her colleagues or will we find out that it didn't make it and the 'cure' is somehow flawed? (oh yes, it's the boy, the boy)

Poor Show, being compared to Lost

Airplane -- check!

Numbers -- check!

Voices -- check!

Leukemia boy -- WAAAALLLLTTT!!!! (yup, he's the key)

[Netfoot]

9 hours ago, CheshireCat said:

and if it did appear on a radar, wouldn't they have appeared without an ID or their old ID?

Presumably the plane's transponder was still squawking the same transponder code as it was before the period of turbulence that (we are led to believe) was responsible for the 5½ year time-jump.  ATC may not have had a record of which flight was using that code - I don't know this would automatically be taken as a sign of illicit activity.   There are only 4095 possible codes and some of those are reserved for special circumstances, so it is reasonable to expect that whatever code they were squawking would have been reassigned to many, many flights since it was assigned to them originally.

[ashleylm]

Underwhelmed, annoyed, bored ... but also wondering if this is a rare case of pilot being less interesting than successive episodes (it's happened before, not often). Yup, I would much rather have seen a show where the main characters were the ones trying to figure out what happened, rather than the victims.  I think the pilot should have started by setting up the characters, focussing on those who took the first flight, then the shocking mid-act break is the discovery that the second plane is missing. We jump ahead and see how everyone's coping with missing their missing, presumed dead, loved ones, when suddenly we get the news that the second plane has landed, five years late.  That's another surprise.  And instead of announcing that no time is past (or showing it to us), we get the visceral shock of seeing your loved ones and realising they haven't changed, even the youngest.  Blackout, cliffhanger.

It's irksome the professionals can't figure out the most interesting way to tell a story. But I guess if they want a procedural where, yet again (yawn) people with surprising abilities team up with crime-fighting professionals to solve mysteries, then so be it.  I'll check out episode number two to see if it corrects episode one's errors, or is just another crime-solving show (and jeepers, if you're going to talk to yourself telepathically, wouldn't you be a bit less cryptic with yourself?  I would think "go slower" means I should take it easy and relax a bit, not that I should yell at the bus driver.  After all, "set them free" wasn't a command to a third party).

[shapeshifter]

At least here in Chicagoland on over-the-air TV, the Pilot is re-airing in about an hour and a half at the first hour of prime time

Edited September 29, 2018 by shapeshifter

[Camera One]

I agree that with the ideas for how the format of the pilot could have been more effective.  Showing more of the family's interactions before their flight (the vacation) would have shown us a baseline of what their interactions and relationships were like prior to this event, making the 5 year jump more intriguing and meaningful.  I assume we will eventually see that in flashbacks later, but would it have lost its power by then? 

I suppose this pilot wanted us to see everything from the POV of the people on the plane, and so there could be surprises later on as we find out what had happened on land over the 5 years, which could be presented in flashbacks.  If we knew everything that occurred on land while the plane was missing, there would be less room for "twists".  There is no mystery about what happened on the flight itself since it was just a regular plane trip, except for that turbulence.

[shapeshifter]

I just rewatched (more or less). I can't figure out how they are going to tie the numbers from the now-dead mom/grandma's verse (Romans 8:28 "All things work together for good for those who are called according to His purpose") with things as random as the address of the place where the kidnapped girls were being held and the flight number of the plane. On Lost, IIRC, the original sequence of numbers was pretty random to begin with. If they don't already have the numbers figured out in a show bible, the poor writers are gonna be up shite creek without a paddle.

[ottoDbusdriver]

I was waiting for Michaela and her brother to hear "Build it, and he will come" or "Go the distance" or "Ease his pain", at least Shoeless Joe Jackson might show up.

Are we going to have to put up with an entire season of sudden-onset ice cream headaches ?  Because watching everyone scrunch up their foreheads in "pain" is going to get old quick.
And is the number 828 going to show up everywhere they go ?  Will 191 also play a part ?  Will all the important number references be palindromes ?

And will their powers suddenly disappear during an eclipse ?  Whoops ! Wrong show </Heroes>

So will the voice give them a seizure or a brain hemorrhage, or maybe even kill them if they ignore the instructions ?  Does everyone from the plane have the same powers ?
Are the other souls all off solving crimes/doing good deeds ? 

Is it God talking to the Manifesters ? Have they all been friended by God ?  Whoops !  Also the wrong show. </GodFriendedMe>

Are we going to find out that they didn't just disappear, but in fact all traveled to the future and then came back from the future with gnarly powers.  As mentioned upthread, that's pretty much The 4400 in a nutshell.

What if it's not a deity telling them what to do, but is in fact aliens ?  Because if cancer kid starts talking about someone named Drill, I'm out.  Whoops ! Also the wrong show. </TheWhispers>

Seriously, the writers have basically cobbled together elements of a dozen other shows -- some good, some not so good -- and put in a blender on puree.

My money is on 'Do you have anything non-sodium' woman being the big villain of the series.  :)

 

Edited September 29, 2018 by ottoDbusdriver

[IDreamofJoaquin]

On 9/25/2018 at 5:32 AM, Giuseppe said:

I agree with those who said they glossed over the "been gone for 5 years" fallout way too quickly. Everyone on that plane should be WAY more freaked out and confused. Instead, it seems like most of them have just accepted it like, "Oh gosh, that's so weird. Hey is my job still available?" Nobody's asking any questions! Nobody seems scared. Nobody seems skeptical. Yes, I know it's just the pilot, and maybe these scenes are yet to come, but I thought that should have been more the focus of the pilot than what we actually got.

I know.  Like casually just walking back into the office?   And what's with the main chick's best friend Lourdes who married her fiancee.  It is her BEST FRIEND and this friend had not bothered to come by and see her at all?  

[Matt K]

7 hours ago, IDreamofJoaquin said:

I know.  Like casually just walking back into the office?   And what's with Micheala's best friend Lourdes who married her fiancee.  It is her BEST FRIEND and this friend had not bothered to come by and see her at all?  

It seemed pointless that she was "her best friend" seeing as how we've never seen her, let alone her interacting with Michaela.  It had all the emotional impact of him marrying the barista at the Starbucks they frequented. 

[shapeshifter]

On 9/26/2018 at 12:58 PM, Jadzia said:

I enjoyed the pilot overall but I thought they missed an opportunity for a character to ask who was President in 2018 and then not believe the answer, a la Back to the Future.

Watching The Philadelphia Experiment (1984,  "A United States Navy destroyer . . . inadvertently sends two sailors forty years into the future") right now, and one of the time travelers from 1943 sees President Reagan on 1983 TV and asks, "Is this another movie?"

 

 

2 hours ago, Matt K said:

It seemed pointless that she was "her best friend" seeing as how we've never seen her, let alone her interacting with Michaela.  It had all the emotional impact of him marrying the barista at the Starbucks they frequented. 

Heh, yeah, especially since as far the Internet knows, no one has been cast to play Lourdes. Probably the character was edited out after the pilot.

Edited September 29, 2018 by shapeshifter

[Palomar]

On ‎9‎/‎25‎/‎2018 at 9:47 AM, tennisgurl said:

Ben's wife just needs to be honest that she found someone else. Yeah its a weird, sucky situation, and I get why she didnt open with "hey baby, welcome back! I know we were happily married about an hour ago, but now its been five years, and I found a new boo! Bye!" but she didnt really do anything wrong, and hiding this will just make everything more awkward. 

 

The thing is a lot more has changed besides her husband coming back, so has her terminally ill child who you would think would be her number 1 consideration and a good reason to press the Pause button on her new relationship.  Assuming they aren't married.  And also depending how she really feels about the new "boo" and her husband.  A good excuse to dump one or the other I would think.  But she will have to still have her husband in her life because of the "twins".

[SpiritSong]

6 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Watching The Philadelphia Experiment (1984,  "A United States Navy destroyer . . . inadvertently sends two sailors forty years into the future") right now, and one of the time travelers from 1943 sees President Reagan on 1983 TV and asks, "Is this another movie?"

 

 

Heh, yeah, especially since as far the Internet knows, no one has been cast to play Lourdes. Probably the character was edited out after the pilot.

She's in the next episode, so we will get to see her. 

[biakbiak]

I actually have no issue with the best friend not immediately reaching out, it’s been about a week and it actually seems appropriate to me to give her time to process being back without immediately having to deal with two people she loved moving on together.

[elle]

On 9/25/2018 at 12:07 PM, Pop Tart said:

Michaela's best friend Lourdes

Is that her name?  From what I heard, I was trying to decide between "Delores" and "Doris".

Was no one else stuck with the ear worm of the chorus from Sting's song If You Love Somebody Set Them Free?

[Camera One]

I had to laugh at the NBC promo I just watched that said this show "has become America's newest obsession".   I guess you don't need to be on Flight 828 to be delusional.

Edited September 30, 2018 by Camera One

[cathmed]

On 9/24/2018 at 11:19 PM, stealinghome said:

That was fairly solid as pilots go, although you can already see the problem with the cast of thousands. The writers packed a lot in fairly efficiently, though they definitely sacrificed some emotional depth and characterization to do so. But I was pleasantly surprised by the actors...generally they seem strong enough to cover for some of the writing’s flaws. Though there is absolutely no way I believe the government would let those people go after 36 hours! No WAY.

Whatever force (whether benign or malevolent...I’m guessing the latter, countered by whatever benevolent force is causing the voices in their heads) was behind the flight’s disappearance is bound up with Cal and the doctor’s pediatric leukemia cure, I’m calling it now. They’re pushing her research as the Miracle Cure, and emphasizing how many kids have been treated with it so much, and the upcoming purchase, that there’s just got to be a catch.

At first I thought it was Michaela’s mother’s voice talking to her.

Melissa Roxburgh has BEAUTIFUL eyes but the camera people need to zoom out from them some. The close-ups on her face and the ex-boyfriend’s were like 10-15% too close.

The wife should just come clean with Ben now about the boyfriend/new husband/whatever. And I’m already NOT digging the Michaela/ex/her best friend upcoming triangle, nor whatever the backstory is with her dead friend. It all just makes the character feel so cliché. I hope the writing backs off that some in a bit in upcoming episodes.

All in all, solid enough pilot. I’m in for at least the initial episode order.

Agreed - the premise might be a bit incredulous, but the pilot kept my interest and liked the cliffhanger and how this will be addressed going forward.  There was so much crammed into this pilot episode which may have been the intent that  I'm certain--or at least hopeful--over the coming weeks, they'll intelligently delve into the backgrounds and perhaps even have the reactions of the families who thought they were missing and how they dealt with that grief.   Agree with others, don't want the heavy-handedness of a religious angle but want to see how this actually affects those on the plane as they piece their lives back together and make this 2nd chance worthwhile/meaningful.

It will be interesting to see how all these loose ends are tied together; I just hope it doesn't go off the rails with some ridiculous trope to ruin this inaugural season.

Edited September 30, 2018 by cathmed

[cathmed]

11 hours ago, Camera One said:

I had to laugh at the NBC promo I just watched that said this show "has become America's newest obsession".   I guess you don't need to be on Flight 828 to be delusional.

That is funny; I've heard that same tag line on several of the new shows!

[shapeshifter]

15 hours ago, SpiritSong said:

21 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Heh, yeah, especially since as far the Internet knows, no one has been cast to play Lourdes.

She's in the next episode, so we will get to see her. 

And the Internet has located Lourdes! Victoria Cartagena has been added to the Manifest IMDb cast list.

[Clanstarling]

1 hour ago, cathmed said:

13 hours ago, Camera One said:

I had to laugh at the NBC promo I just watched that said this show "has become America's newest obsession".   I guess you don't need to be on Flight 828 to be delusional.

 

That is funny; I've heard that same tag line on several of the new shows!

I always think of those kinds of promos as vision boards - more aspirational than true.

[shapeshifter]

1 minute ago, Clanstarling said:

1 hour ago, cathmed said:

13 hours ago, Camera One said:

I had to laugh at the NBC promo I just watched that said this show "has become America's newest obsession".   I guess you don't need to be on Flight 828 to be delusional.

 

That is funny; I've heard that same tag line on several of the new shows!

I always think of those kinds of promos as vision boards - more aspirational than true.

Maybe more like subliminal messaging?

[MerBearHou]

Fascinating premise so I was really looking forward to this, but the casting is so very, very DULL.  It was a huge misstep to not spend more time going through the re-integration after everyone returned — that could have been so compelling and interesting plus it just makes sense to do so.